Missions & Complexes

So i recently moved from my old exploration area to a new one. Both of the areas have a long chain of 0.5/6 systems but the old one had around 3 times less player traffic compared to the new one (most of the time i was alone in the systems). The new place had a lot more people and from what i could tell most of them were explorers too which bummed me out at first when i got there. Regardless, after around a week there now, i have completed just as many combat sites as i did in my old area and even though i've had to surrender many of them too due to discovering them too late, it seems to me that they just pop up more often around there.

TLDR: theory is, the more people swarm around in an area, the more exploration sites spawn, thoughts?

All sites respawn within 5-10 minutes after they are completed/despawned, not at down time as some players believe. However the respawn location is random. the only consistency to the respawn is the sites will spawn in space where the rates in that sites are normally found. For example Guristas sites will spawn in caladri space, A high sec Guristas site once completed will respawn somewhere else within caldari high sec within 5-10 minutes of it despawning. There are some exceptions, but generally this is how it seems to work.

High sec exploration is very popular right now, meaning a lot more sites are being completed, at a much faster rate. this has increased site respawn rates all across high sec.

As an explorer I have tested this out a fair bit. I have not really noticed any difference with how busy a specific region or constellation is having any impact on site spawns, but there is definitely a significant increase in frequency everywhere I have looked, As I said, I attribute this to the increase in exploration activity all across high sec.

One of the odd things I have noticed is a side effect of the random respawn locations. With sites respawning very quickly, in random locations, sites tend to build up in area's with very low activity. Some explorers that seek these out call them gold mine systems. I have seen isolated systems with over 100 signatures.

These gold mine systems are usually found on high sec islands, where you have to cross thru low sec to reach them. Some of these islands in remote areas can go months without a single pilot entering the system. If you find one you will know, as there will be hundreds of sites, just waiting to be spawned.

I used to live on islands to take advantage of the mechanism bugsy describes. If you prefer to sift through 10 sigs for you like instead of 10 systems for a sig.

So we don't "spawn" some more myths (many of which are repeated above), can I just once again state, that no one here actually knows the CCP spawn mechanics, and this is all guesses?

I can guarantee you the mechanic is not as simple as "sites respawn 5-10 minutes after they are completed...etc." as mentioned above, as in some regions (such as goonspace), there are so many explorers that this would literally mean a new Maze is spawned and completed every 30 minutes (in addition to escalations). This is simply not the case, or x-type guristas loot would be worth nothing. This is a persistent rumour that originated when anomalies with system upgrades were introduced to the game (they do in fact respawn in this manner, reliably, by design).

Please take any statements claiming to be "facts" with a huge grain of salt, including my own. No one has been willing or able to gather the resources to actually test out any of these theories, which would require a huge, coordinated player effort (i.e. you would need an explorer in every system in multiple regions, constantly watching for new signatures, and able to scan them down and complete them; all reporting and coordinating their findings).

Anecdotally, even in Goonrushed space, I find multiple high end combat sites every Sunday night, after the weekend rush has gone to bed. FWIW.